EA unveils Project Atlas AI-powered development platform

The tech will allow games to be streamed to any mobile device or desktop computer

EA has revealed its AI-powered development engine, designed to beam computer games to any mobile device or computer, as long as it's got a decent internet connection.

The platform is focused on making the process of creating cross-platform games easier for developers. At the moment, creators have to spend a lot of time making sure their games work across platforms and screen sizes, making sure less powerful mobile processors can cope as well as gaming laptops, for example.

But EA's Project Atlas will minimise this heavy lifting, so developers can instead focus on making more graphically games that just work everywhere, even on devices that would not normally be able to support them.

EA's chief technology officer Ken Moss commented that, so far, game development has been fragmented. And even gaming innovation has complicated things, with AI, cloud, distributed computing, social features, and engines all developing individually, but not at the same rate.

"Technological disruptors — when brought together in a complementary way — will result in a truly profound unlock for game creators," Moss said.

The technology works by using remote servers that stream the game to the device of choice using what is essentially a video feed that can adapt to the device capabilities. Because the server does all the heavy lifting, the device receiving the content merely needs to have a solid internet connection - the same as using Netflix, Amazon Prime video or any other video streaming service.

"With the unified platform of Project Atlas, game makers will have the ability to seamlessly deploy security measures including SSL certificates, configuration, appropriate encryption of data, and zero-downtime patches for every feature from a single secure source," Moss added. "This means that they can focus on what game makers are best at — creating the best games."

The news comes just a few weeks after both Microsoft and Google announced their own game streaming services - Project Xcloud and ProjectStream respectively.